Marcus Aurelius

Death smiles at us all; all a man can do is smile back.

— Marcus Aurelius mortality

Meditations (attrib.)

All things from eternity are of like forms and come round in a circle.

— Marcus Aurelius mortality

Meditations 2.14

Thou wilt die soon, and thou art not yet simple nor free from perturbations.

— Marcus Aurelius mortality

Meditations 4.37

Consider how many do not even know thy name, and how many will soon forget it.

— Marcus Aurelius mortality

Meditations 9.30

Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current.

— Marcus Aurelius mortality

Meditations 4.43

What we do now echoes in eternity.

— Marcus Aurelius action

Meditations (attrib.)

Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.

— Marcus Aurelius mortality

Meditations 4.17

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.

— Marcus Aurelius fate

Meditations

Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.

— Marcus Aurelius adversity

Meditations 5.18

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

— Marcus Aurelius control

Meditations 8.47